Yucca Plan May Need to Be Scrapped, NRC Member Says

Efforts to build the Yucca Mountain underground nuclear waste site in Nevada might need to be replaced with a new plan for a new location, an outgoing member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Monday (see GSN, Nov. 27, 2006).

“It may be time to stop digging,” Edward McGaffigan said of the project, which is years behind its original schedule for completion.  He said Yucca Mountain has been troubled by “bad law, bad regulatory policy, bad personnel policy … bad budget policy.”

“Realistically, we should probably be starting to look at new sites,” McGaffigan said, according to Energy Daily.

Experts have said that underground storage is the best option for dealing with spent nuclear fuel, he said.  McGaffigan pointed to a Finnish project and the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant for storage of transuranic waste in New Mexico as examples of success.

However, regular changes in leadership at Yucca, inconsistent funding and unsuccessful attempts by lawmakers to solve problems have undermined the project, he said.

When McGaffigan joined the commission in 1996, Yucca was scheduled to open in 2010.  Recent Energy Department estimates indicate it might not open until between 2025 and 2027, he said.  It would be designed to contain 77,000 tons of nuclear waste.

“I arrived at the commission 14 years from the alleged opening date of Yucca, and I leave the commission 20 years from the alleged opening date,” McGaffigan said (Jeff Beattie, Energy Daily, Jan. 23).

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